Baker Street Interludes
by Edhla
Summary: A series of Season One and Season Two drabble interludes. It's not all giggling at crime scenes...
1. Lipstick

_**A/N- This is a series of drabbles of varying lengths, mostly for the purposes of helping along my chronic writer's block.**_

_**All of them are interludes that take place within the body of canonical Season One and Season Two. They're in as close to chronological order as I can make them, so have fun working out which scenes to sandwich them between.**_

_**Not all of them take place literally at Baker Street. They should eventually cover most characters.**_

_**They also fit around every other work on my profile, and provide context for my chaptered hiatus and reunion fics, After the Fall and Come Forth, Lazarus, both of which can be accessed from my profile.**_

* * *

**Lipstick**

She tried to tell herself it was the wrong colour.

But it wasn't the wrong colour, or the wrong lipstick, or the lipstick at all. It was _her_.

Molly Hooper, taking refuge in the disabled toilet, scrubbed at her mouth with a paper towel that she'd run under cold water. What was the use in wearing lipstick, anyway? Waste of money. Because Sherlock didn't like her when she was wearing lipstick, or not wearing lipstick; he didn't think she looked pretty, because her mouth was too small. Sherlock... wouldn't think she was pretty if her mouth was bigger, or if she didn't have a mouth at all.

Guilt nipped at her chest; wrong to monopolise the disabled toilet. But she couldn't bring herself to use the ladies'. People might see. People might see her as she leaned her forehead against the mirror and felt the hard, clammy kiss of reflective glass against her skin, her breath fogging the reflection of her mouth. Her mouth that was _too small, now,_ even red and swollen as it was from where the abrasive paper towel had run roughshod over it.

She screwed the mushy lump of towel in her palm, just for a second; then threw it in a nearby bin, stood up straight, and practiced her best smile for the benefit of her own reflection.

Sherlock wanted a cup of coffee. Black, two sugars. She couldn't make him happy. But she _could_ make him coffee.


	2. Skulls

Oh dear. Why did he have to put s_kulls e_verywhere?

Mrs Hudson looked around her upstairs flat in something close to despair_._ Skulls. Everywhere. He'd put a large picture of a skull up on the near wall, no doubt having first punched holes in her lovely chocolate-brown and cream coloured wallpaper to do it. Then there was a big animal skull on the wall between the front windows, with headphones on it. And on the mantelpiece-

Oh _no. Sherlock…_

"Mrs Hudson!"

The door to the street slammed shut and Sherlock bounded up the staircase, three at a time, like an overexcited puppy. Ruddy and chilled from running the short distance from the kerb to the door.

"Mrs Hudson, excellent news!" Sherlock threw his arms around her, squeezed her out of breath. He didn't smell like those nasty cigarettes he smoked, today, and she was glad of it.

"Look at you, Sherlock, what are you all excited about now?" she smiled indulgently at him. "Well, never mind, it'll keep for the moment. Sherlock, we have to talk about-"

"I've got someone coming to look at the flat-"

"Sherlock-"

"Tomorrow evening, seven o'clock."

"Sherlock, dear, these skulls-"

"Met him at Barts today. I knew Mike would oblige me with someone I can work with-"

"… Him? Oh, Sherlock, how _lovely_, I'm so pleased for you. Well you needn't worry, I can be discreet about it if you'd prefer your brother not know about that. Now Sherlock, about these skulls-"

"Some coffee, Mrs Hudson."

"I'm your landlady, dear, not your housekeeper, and the magic word would go a long way. Just this once. Not your mother either. Now Sherlock, dear, these _skulls_. I don't mind your picture, though I wish you'd asked before you-"

"We'll need to come to some agreement on the rent, of course-"

"But really, the one on that wall between the windows is quite distasteful-"

"He's a doctor. Or rather, he _was_ one, but doesn't practice these days, and needs a place to live that he can afford on an army pension."

"Army pension? I thought he was a doctor. Now Sherlock, I really don't like you having that one over there on the mantelpiece. Even if it's not real, it's not _decent_, is it?"

"I regret to inform you that it _is _real, and who cares about _decent_, when there's finally someone interesting moving in? Coffee, Mrs Hudson. The kettle finished boiling eleven seconds ago, and I have some science equipment to bring up."

Mrs Hudson smiled after Sherlock as he clattered down the stairs. Like a herd of elephants, he was. Bless him.

He might have been her son.


	3. Some Kids Found Her

Children had been born and raised in the house in Lauriston Gardens, and people had known joy and sorrow there. They had known both love and hate. Brides had adorned themselves there. People had made love under that roof. Wept there. Died there.

That was all over with. Now, nothing ever wandered through those decaying, empty rooms except the wind, and the occasional band of neighbourhood children seeking a place to play out of the cold of a January evening.

The day had been one of white skies and nipping little breezes; it was dying quickly amid the smell of woodfires burning and the sound of children being called in to supper. Things were drab in a Brixton January. Everything was the grey of brooding winter skies and twilight smoke.

The woman that Amber Stricker, Kyle Suter and the three Worsley children found lying face-down in the upper bedroom of number fourteen was neither drab nor grey. She was splendid and pink, like a sunrise. Like a love-heart, or a wrapped sweet, or a lipsticked kiss.

At five minutes to six in the evening, a call was put forward to 999 to report the discovery of a woman's body.


	4. Deodorant

"I'm not using _Kelly's _deodorant," she objected when he suggested it. "Isn't it bad enough that I'm doing unspeakable things with her husband on the kitchen floor...? Thanks..." she took his own deodorant from him with a coy glance over her shoulder, black ringlets bouncing.

Jeffrey Anderson was leaning in the bathroom doorway, watching Sally Donovan put her bra back on. "Bad enough?" he repeated. "It was pretty good for me."

_Ugh_. He was good for a bit of fun, as long as you didn't let him talk too much afterwards. Smarmy git.

"Hope it was good for you," he conceded politely. And that was the problem, she reflected. It bloody _was _good. "And anyway, Kelly will never know-" he was cut off when _her _phone started ringing from where she'd left it on the bedside table.

They looked at each other. He smirked.

"Don't you dare," she told him, and this time she wasn't being coy. "You go for that phone, and I swear I'll break your arm."

It hadn't been funny when he'd pulled that stunt last month, either. She'd had a hell of a time trying to explain her way out of _that _one. Still in her bra and skirt, she padded barefoot back into the bedroom and retrieved the phone. He followed her in as she answered it.

Boss. Murder. Another one. Some kids found a dead woman in a house.

She asked Lestrade where. She knew _exactly_ where, but it never hurt to have a good innocent tone in working order. Lestrade had called Anderson's phone less than five minutes ago with the same news.

Even after a year of on-again-off-again, she still called him 'Anderson' to his face. Nobody, so far as she knew, ever called him by his first name. In fact, she'd had him twice and stayed over once before she worked out what his first name even _was. _

And now he was being an insufferable creep and breathing in her free ear while she tried to write down directions. Why did he have to go and spoil things? Next he'd probably be bothering her for a kiss.

She told Lestrade she'd be on her way, hung up, and shoved Anderson hard. "I told you to leave me alone when I'm on the phone," she growled at him. "You're not funny. And you leave fifteen minutes after I do, okay?"

He frowned in confusion. "Why?"

"Because you live ten minutes further away to Brixton than I do." She sighed. How Anderson had managed to get his forensic qualifications was beyond her. The man was a dim-bulb when it came to most things. "And if you smirk at me when we're there, never again _and _I'll break your arm. Now where the _fuck_ is my coat?"


	5. Rache

_Rache._

The dying woman had scratched something into the floor. With her fingernails.

_Rachel_? Lestrade had been wrong before, and with a fourth victim, he wasn't prepared to take any chances. Down on his heels beside where the corpse lay unfurled like a flower fallen from a bouquet, he pondered for a second, replacing the _l _with every letter in succession. Rachea? Racheb? Rachec? _Rachel_ was the only one that fit. _Rache _wasn't a word, he felt sure. At least, not a word in English.

Hadn't been here for long- and the dingy upstairs room where she'd been found still reeked of her perfume. And not some sort of funereal, floral scent either. She smelled, Lestrade thought, exactly like the pink sugar mice he and Julie still put into Hayley's Christmas stocking every year.

He'd have preferred her to smell like putrefaction than like a living, breathing woman. A woman who evidently liked the colour pink. Shoes. Nails. Surprising that her _hair_ wasn't pink. Lestrade felt that there was probably something in all of that.

The question was, _what?_

Luckily, he knew someone who could tell him. Unluckily, that man was easily the most obnoxious person that Greg Lestrade had ever met. Luckily, he had his number on hand. Unluckily, one of the many obnoxious things Sherlock Holmes did was refuse to answer his phone for days on end. On a whim.

"Sherlock, for God's sake," Lestrade muttered to the brrrrring line. He'd wandered into the vacant adjourning room to make the call, checking over his shoulder that the man's name hadn't been overheard. There were going to be plenty of unhappy campers from the Met when the man himself showed up. _If_ he did. Wasn't even answering messages on his website this week. Something about him moving flats.

A brief click as the line dropped in; for a second his hopes rose. This was premature. He was speaking to Sherlock's voicemail service.

"Sherlock, answer your bloody phone," he growled by way of leaving a message, and hung up. All those smart-arse, know-it-all texts the day before, and now the man couldn't even be bothered to pick up the line to be, you know, helpful.

"Donovan," he called down to his sergeant as he began to make his way down the stairs. She was in the front hall, talking to a PC in uniform. "I need to leave for a while. You're in charge until I get back. Don't let anyone move her, and keep as many people out as you can."

She was looking at him suspiciously by this time, as well she might when the most senior officer on duty decided to leave a major crime scene and not explain where he was going. "Where-"

"I'll be back."

Oh, well this was going to please Sherlock and his gigantic ego. Sherlock Holmes: the man DI Lestrade _literally _went to when he needed help. Now where the hell had he moved into? He'd read the address on the website just that morning, and then promptly ignored it. Somewhere in... Baker Street?


	6. Five Quid

He'd taken the banknote from the ticket machine at the station and folded it carefully into his wallet, snug behind his military ID. Five quid. It had to last three days. That was why he was walking up to Baker Street, even though icicles of sharp pain were already stabbing at the back of his right leg, digging deeper into the muscle every time his foot made contact with the frigid concrete.

It was a five minute walk that had taken him thirteen.

And what was it all for? His heart sank as he arrived at his destination.

_John, what the hell were you thinking? This is Central London. You have five quid to your name. Do the maths. You can't afford to live in the middle of the city with a man with an accent like that._

_Together we should be able to afford it..._

John hated himself for a second. He should have said it yesterday, right there and then: _I'm sorry, I don't think I can afford it_. How much money did this Sherlock Holmes person think he _had? _He couldn't afford a place like this split _eight_ ways, let alone two.

Well... maybe he'd at least have a _look_. Maybe it was a really terrible, tiny flat. Infested with rats or something. Though he couldn't imagine the sharp-dressed Mr. Holmes having his eye on digs like that.

Looking at nice things he couldn't afford to buy was a low-level torture that John couldn't help but indulge in sometimes.

Balancing awkwardly on the step, he clutched the ornate brass knocker in one hand and knocked- noticing at that very moment that he should have just used the doorbell. _Dammit._

"Hello."

He turned. Sherlock Holmes was getting out of a cab. Of _course_ he was getting out of a- was that a _fifty pound note_ he handed the driver?

"Ah... Mr. Holmes..." he faltered, suddenly self-conscious about his own accent and diction.

"Sherlock, please."

John shifted his cane from his right hand to his left in flustered embarrassment- handshakes always drew attention to the cane. And 'Sherlock' was such an... _awkward..._ name.

_But then I won't be using it for very long, will I?_

"Well, this is a prime spot... must be expensive..." He heard himself and flinched. How utterly crass. He'd only meant to comment on the nice location, not gripe about the money. But Sherlock smiled tersely.

"The landlady, Mrs Hudson. She's given me a special deal..."

It was years later when John finally understood what the 'special deal' was: _whatever Dr. Watson can afford. Tell him he's paying half. Mycroft and I will make up the rest._


	7. Amazing

The man beside him in the cab- the former army doctor with the second-hand phone and all of five pounds to his name, if Sherlock's observations were correct- was silent for a few seconds. Sherlock held his breath, waiting for the sledgehammer: _piss off, Freak. _

"That," he said slowly, "was amazing."

**_Amazing_**_: A-ma-zing: adj. Causing great surprise or sudden wonder._

Sherlock ventured to release the breath he'd been holding. Well, that was... unexpected. "You think so...?" he ventured.

"Of course it was. It was extraordinary... it was quite extraordinary."

**_Extraordinary_**_: Ex-traor-din-ary: adj. _

_1. Beyond what is usual, ordinary, regular or established. _

_2. Exception in character, amount, extent, degree, etc.; noteworthy; remarkable. _

_3. (of an official, employee, etc.) outside or additional to the ordinary staff; having a special, often temporary task or responsibility._

Clearly, Dr. John Watson didn't mean the last of these three possible meanings for "extraordinary." And combining both possibilities of what the man _did _mean with the definition of _a-ma-zing _brought a chastened sort of silence over the self-proclaimed consulting detective, even if it was only for a moment.

The man wasn't being sarcastic.

_Maybe he wasn't trying to insult me when he said the police don't consult amateurs._

_Maybe... maybe I attacked him with those deductions. I called his brother a 'drunk.' _

_He called me 'amazing'. He called me 'extraordinary'._

"... That's not what people normally say..." Sherlock faltered.

"What do people normally say?"

And now this John Watson _cared_ what people normally said to him. Sherlock hesitated for a second.

"'Piss off,'" he confessed, with a sort of wry smile.

John Watson smiled, too- the first real smile Sherlock Holmes had seen from him. But the truth of the matter was that _piss off _was not what people normally said. It was what they _always _said... when they weren't using stronger terms than that. Sherlock leaned back into his seat. He was staring at the lighted shops flashing past the cab windows, but he was thinking about the man sitting beside him.

_Amazing. Extraordinary._


	8. Captain

Nineteen months ago, Captain John Watson had thrown a 6', 110kg fellow soldier over his shoulder and run him to cover. During a _training exercise._

Thirteen months ago, Captain John Watson had kicked down a solid-hinged door and been first into a house in Kandahar identified as a possible hot-bed of insurgents. And been disappointed when it hadn't been.

Ten months ago, Captain John Watson had helped two others lift an overturned jeep off a young corporal after an offroad accident in Helmand Province, and spent a freezing night in the desert alone with the injured boy, awaiting backup from the R.A.M.C.

Seven months ago, Captain John Watson had been a major player in the successful seven-hour-long operation to restore Major Lance Gilbert's left leg, severed in yet another jeep accident.

Six months ago, Captain John Watson had broke cover and gone out under heavy fire to a boy named Josh Harris. Harris had come home in a coffin, and John had come home in a coma.

And now, on this January night, he was trying to explain to a police sergeant that he was stranded in Brixton with five pounds to his name and no way of walking home because of his _bloody leg. _

_Try the main road._

_Well, thank you for that insight, Sergeant Donovan._

Limping off toward the main road, he paused for a second. Surely... if he asked her to call a cab... He couldn't pay for it, of course. But weren't the police supposed to help...?

He shook his head. He neither liked nor trusted Sergeant Donovan; that smirk of hers had been directed mostly at Sherlock Holmes, but had she been... delighted, when she realised Sherlock had left without him? She'd be all-too-happy to rub _that _in, even if she was prepared to help.

John thought briefly of DI Lestrade... he seemed an affable, tolerant, efficient kind of person. Maybe he'd be able to help without turning this into Pity-John-Watson hour.

_John, what the hell are you thinking? He's a homicide detective at a major crime scene, he's got other things on his mind than worrying how you get home._

Maybe he should call Sherlock... see if he was okay? After all, surely he hadn't run off like that on purpose. But then he remembered, too late, that he'd never asked for the man's phone number.

_Dammit._

He fumbled to check that he still had his wallet on him. Maybe there'd be a late night bus...? He wasn't sure how far five pounds was going to get him, but what other choice was there but to try?

He grit his teeth. This was going to hurt.


	9. Table for Two

Sherlock hauled the pink case onto the chair in self-satisfied triumph. Relatively clean, even... considering that it had been in a skip for at least two hours before he'd found it. Fumbling at the zipper- gloves were awkward but necessary- he opened it and surveyed the contents.

Change of clothes, underwear. Toiletries bag (this very large.) Hideous romance novel.

_No phone._

"John," he said over his shoulder. "What do you notice-"

He stopped. His voice had met only the emptiness of the flat behind him. Rocking back on his heels, he closed his eyes and remembered that the last time he'd seen John Watson had been at the crime scene. The injured man hadn't been with him when he'd found the case.

He had no idea where John was now.

An odd feeling plucked at his chest... one he so rarely felt that he had to simply stop and use a process of elimination to work out what it was. Not pathological. He wasn't ill. Emotional, then? Why emotional? Nothing had happened to him that night to provoke it.

No, not to _him_. But the more Sherlock thought about it, the more convinced he was that it had to do with something _outside _of himself. With John Watson, in fact, who was more than likely stranded on the other side of London on a cold winter night with psychosomatic leg pain and five pounds to his name.

Sherlock covered his mouth thoughtfully and considered for a few seconds. It was unthinkable for him to... say he was sorry. No, well, it wasn't his fault that John couldn't and didn't keep up, why should he be _sorry?_ All the same, perhaps... maybe he should give John something to do. Get him to...

Sherlock glanced at his own mobile phone, sitting innocently on the coffee table.

_Get him to send a text_. Some nonsense about using his own phone being too dangerous... The ex-army adrenaline junkie would lap that right up, no doubt. He was used to giving orders- and taking them. He'd be unlikely to ask too many questions.

He looked back across at the pink case. Yes, he could _definitely_ get John to text the dead woman's phone... and then an exciting stakeout might make up for being marooned in the same street at Sally Donovan. A dose of unnecessary drama might do wonders for that leg pain of his, too... Sherlock was thinking in reams by this time.

_It's nine o'clock._

_He's probably hungry._

_He's broke... and a man as stubborn as that would prefer to starve than take my money._

Sherlock shut his eyes. Angelo's, where he'd been eating on-the-house for the past six months, had a nice view of 22 Northumberland Street from the front windows.

He picked up the phone. Table for two this time, Angelo.


	10. Time to Choose a Side

The test had been passed. Now the only thing to be done was to make sure Dr. John Watson didn't end up a waterlogged corpse in the Thames.

Standing in the damp, fluorescent-patched shadows of the chilly warehouse and awaiting the arrival of his own car home, Mycroft was thinking hard about the man who'd just dismissed himself from his presence.

Few people had ever successfully run the gauntlet of Mycroft's watchful eye over his little brother. He had offered money to "ease the way" of everyone who came close to Sherlock. Most had been stupid enough to accept it. Generally, they disappeared from Sherlock's life when that happened.

Some of them disappeared altogether.

There were a few notable exceptions to the pattern, of course. That Lestrade fellow from Scotland Yard had told Mycroft _exactly_ what he could do with his money, in even stronger terms than John Watson had. _I don't take bribes. _Martha Hudson had been angry, and told Mycroft he should be ashamed of himself and if he were her son, she'd put him over her knee well-and-proper. And then there had been Miss Hooper, that timid little pathologist from the hospital. She'd staunchly shook her head- and then burst into such a violent fit of crying that he'd offered her a sour but well-meant, "well, there's no need to cry about it," and told her who he really was.

Remarkable reactions, really, from some very ordinary people.

And now, Dr. John Watson. Born in Chelmsford, Essex. Twin sister named Harriet. Studied at King's College, Cambridge. Formerly of the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers, and had nearly made out an entire second year of duty in Afghanistan before being wounded and sent home. PTSD. Had a very pliable therapist. A pleasant-looking, though noticably small man, in a profession where such things mattered.

And he had not yielded one inch to Mycroft Holmes.

Very loyal, very quickly.

Sherlock had taken him to a crime scene that night- Sherlock, who did not play nicely with others and preferred to work alone. Sherlock, who had promptly left Dr. Watson at the crime scene and given him every reason in the world to divulge discreet details to the first rich, well-dressed, vaguely threatening personage who kidnapped him, took him out to a warehouse in Bermondsey and offered him a guaranteed month of food and rent.

Dr. Watson was a person of importance to Sherlock Holmes, so much was clear. And it therefore followed that he was now a person of interest to Mycroft Holmes.

Mycroft's phone bleeped out a text alert. Fishing into the pocket of his suit and drawing it out, he saw that it was from the girl he'd named Anthea, and whose real name he couldn't be bothered to remember.

_He asked to be taken to Baker Street._

Thumbing the keypad a little awkwardly, Mycroft sent the response.

_Take him. Make sure he arrives safely._

* * *

_**A/N-** Since there's been some confusion between ACD verse and BBC verse re: John's history, I'll clarify my sources :) In The Blind Banker, we see a glimpse of John's resume. His first hospital work was in Chelmsford, Essex, making it plausible that he was living local and perhaps brought up in the area- no other information for his place of birth is given in-episode or in any of the blogs as yet. That Harry is his twin is something I got from the fact that in a March entry to his blog, he snarks that Harry should grow up because she's "36", and six months later, a Belgravia newspaper article claims John is 37, making him very slightly older or a twin. King's College is on his resume in The Blind Banker. _


	11. Boyfriend

_Well, he hasn't got a girlfriend, anyway._

Harry had come out of the closet when she and her brother were nineteen- and had almost instantly turned and scrabbled madly at the closet handle, trying to get back in. She'd blamed John for that. _It'll be fine, you said. It's the nineties, not the nineteenth century. Nobody will think badly of you, you said. Thanks so much for that, John._

It was true that John had said those things. He'd also said other things Harry never spoke of, like _why should your whole life be a lie? Because you're scared of a few bigots?_

She'd started drinking heavily after she came out.

To be fair about things, most people were pretty okay with it. But then, most people had assumed Harry was just "going through a rebellious phase" after all that had happened to her in the previous two years. She was just... pretending to be gay? John had never understood it. Why would anyone in their right mind do that?

It was partly why he'd been adamant that she should stop pretending to be straight.

Only weeks later, she'd been mysteriously fired from a job that she'd always hated. Probably the drinking, not the fact that she was gay. Six months after that, John had punched some lout on campus who'd called her a _dyke_ and spent a few hours in a holding cell over it. No regrets, even though he'd knocked the guy unconscious and had come perilously close to losing his scholarship over that one.

But then, he'd have done it if he'd called her a _bitch _instead.

Much later, there'd been all that drama with Clara, of course... when John had encouraged his sister to come out, he hadn't expected his then-girlfriend to fall in love with her and end up the sister-in-law for seven years. But on the whole, Harriet Anne Watson came out as a lesbian and the world still turned.

So if Sherlock Holmes was gay, the world was still going to turn. John could live with that- and live with him. Why not? They were going to be sharing a flat, not a bloody _bed_.

_His landlady assumes he's gay. The guy I met earlier in the warehouse was a complete arse about it. Then that Angelo guy..._

_Sherlock probably thinks if he tells me he's gay, I'll run for the hills._

_Well, this is awkward. I don't even know him. Still, should probably say something. If he's gay and too scared to just tell me... I guess he just needs to me to let him know it's fine._


	12. Home

"It's fine, let me do it."

John had been halfway through a plate of Five-spice Chicken when he'd realised that the powder burns on his fingers were... well, burns. They hurt. While he was sure that running them under cold water was much too little and too late, he'd gone to the men's and done it anyway. What he hadn't expected was that Sherlock was going to come with him and stand over his shoulder curiously while he did it, giving a running commentary on what he should do and how he should do it.

It was weeks - months - later when John looked back and saw this gesture for what it was.

"It's no use trying to wash it off," Sherlock told him in that annoying know-it-all way he had. "You're going to need to-"

"Yes, I know." John spoke through grit teeth. "I've done this before."

"How many times?"

It was a few seconds before John registered the question; when he did, he shook himself slightly. "Sorry, what?"

"How many times have you done this before?" Sherlock insisted.

At this, John twisted the faucet off, reached out for a paper towel, and turned to face him. But there was no malice in Sherlock's grey eyes - only a childlike curiosity. He thought back to earlier that night, and the look on his face when he realised that loudly wondering why a woman would "still be upset" about her stillborn child was A Bit Not Good.

He wasn't trying to be rude.

Sherlock just didn't have much of a grasp on basic social interactions.

"I don't think I want to be talking about this with you in the men's at a restaurant," John finally told him, a little stiffly. "You really shouldn't have come in here with me anyway."

"Why not?"

"Because you... just don't do things like that..." John shook his head, giving up for the time being. It had been too crazy a day for him to explain to someone - a grown man, a genius, and someone he'd met _yesterday - _why you shouldn't hover over people in a public toilet. Even if they only happened to be making a half-arsed effort to treat powder burns in their fingers after they'd shot someone dead...

"That's your phone," Sherlock remarked as a high-pitched trilling sound emanated from John's left jeans pocket.

"Yes, I know." John flicked the crumpled paper towel into the waste-paper basket beside.

"It's your sister," Sherlock prompted him impatiently. "Are you not going to answer it?"

"Not if it actually is Harry, no. And how would _you_ know who it is?" John pulled his phone out of his pocket, sliding the cover up and checking the incoming number.

_Harry._

"John, do try to keep up." Sherlock sounded heartily disappointed. He hoisted himself up on the countertop next to the sink, legs dangling cheerfully, as if he was the world's tallest six-year-old. "It's just past one a.m. Four different television channels have a brief five-minute news bulletin at that hour. The story of the dead cabbie has just broken out, and your sister's now convinced you're lying dead on the linoleum in one of the classrooms back at the college."

"Yeah, well, that'd serve her right for not listening to the news properly," John muttered. "She'll live. I'll call her tomorrow."

The phone rang out; there was a short silence and then the muffled _ping_ of a voicemail alert. Sherlock looked briefly disappointed.

"Oh, don't." John smiled wryly. "Don't start lecturing me about Harry."

"I wasn't going to lecture you." Sherlock sounded vaguely offended.

"Everybody else does."

Sherlock snorted in contempt. "I," he said haughtily, "am not _everybody else_."

_No. No, you're certainly not, I think we can agree on that._

_"_Well good, 'cause you're not in a position to talk about playing nice with family. I've already heard about Christmas dinners with your brother," he teased.

"And I suppose," Sherlock huffed, crossing his arms defensively, "Saint Mycroft wants recognition from the Vatican for tolerating me. You've met him. How pleasant do you think _he _makes Christmas?"

"I'll bet it's never boring." John looked down at his hands again. So far as he could tell, both of them had been perfectly steady since he'd first met Mycroft. _And a good thing too. I don't think Sherlock realises how close that bullet came to _his own _shoulder... _ "Anyway," he said. "It's getting late."

Sherlock shrugged, as if the idea of quarter-past-one in the morning being 'late' had only just occurred to him. "Yes," he said blandly, sliding off the countertop. "Yes, I quite agree. Let's go home, then."

Perhaps it had been quite early that night- before the chase after the cab. Maybe it had been during the drugs bust. John was never sure later; but it didn't really matter. What mattered was that at some point during that night, he'd come to realise that Sherlock Holmes was his flatmate and that 221B Baker Street was home.

* * *

**A/N**- If you're wondering what happens next, see the one-shot on my profile, _Powder Burns. :)_


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